FIRST LOOK: Hands On With iiNet’s BoB2 Modem [PICS]

While I was just about to type “Waiting for by BoB2 – it should be coming soon” on Google+, I looked out my window, and guess who was walking up my driveway? A delivery man holding my brand new BoB2 Modem from iiNet that I won through iiNet’s Win A BoB2 in May Competition.

After being a proud owner of a BoB1 for almost two years (check out my review of BoB1), I could not wait to see what the new and improved BoB2 would be like. With no further ado, here is my iinet BoB2 review.

The Unboxing

One of the main reasons I wanted a BoB2 was for its fresh minty smell. However, I was quite disappointed when it smelt like any other computer component. (Confused? Watch the TV Ad). So to answer that question, no, BoB2 does not have a minty smell (unless of course staff put mints in your package).

In the BoB2 package (which is your BoB2 Modem and your handset), you get the standard things such as your power supply, line filter, Ethernet cable and two phone cables, and your stands. You also get four manuals, which are your quick installation guide, your BoB2 user manual, your handset manual, and your wireless setup guide that you can download here. They also send you a friendly fridge magnet (or I should say a freezer magnet).

Setting It All Up

You can see that iiNet tries hard in making the installation on BoB1 and BoB2 pretty easy, but I have to say, it was a little troublesome getting online as the standard automatic setup procedure did not really work for me. It was pretty easy physically installing BoB2, because all I had to do was pull out the cables from BoB1 and put them into BoB2. I did not have to use the supplied Ethernet cable, phone cables or line filter because that was already there, so I can add those into my spare parts collection.

Since the automatic setup did not work for me, I had to manually configure the modem, which was that difficult. Once your computer is connected, (I connected via LAN), the first time you visit a webpage, you will be redirected to an iiNet page asking for your iiNet UserName and Password. Therefore, I entered my details in, and it says that my details were incorrect for some reason – even though they were correct as I got them straight out of FireFox’s password manager for iiNet Toolbox. So I clicked on the forgot password link to get a copy of my password just to make sure, however, that took a good 30 minutes to receive, and by then, I already configured BoB2 manually.

Therefore, when I went to BoB’s IP address that is http://10.1.1.1, I entered in my account details and was I connected straight away. VOIP was a little trickier because that time I did enter my VOIP password incorrectly (could not read my own handwriting).

So What About Wireless Setup?

A while ago, I believe iiNet got some slack for having the default wireless settings open to all, so non-tech-savvy people would be vulnerable from their neighbours. However by default, the BoB2 Wi-Fi is protected. On the back of BoB2, there is a sticker informing you of your default SSID and WPA Key so you can connect to your wireless network. It is pretty much self-explanatory, but the Wireless Setup Guide (PDF) explains it all.

BoB2 also offers WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) which can also be used to setup BoB2. On the back of BoB2, there is a button that you can press to get you started. There are three buttons on the back, the WPS, DECT Register, and DECT page.

Playing Around Inside BoB2

When you visit BoB2’s URL at http://10.1.1.1, you are presented with a nice splash screen of key information regarding the status of your ADSL connection and VOIP.

The layout of BoB2 is almost identical to the iiNet website, and looks much neater than the BoB1 configuration page. Here are screenshots of each of the seven areas and their sub-menus.

1. BoB2 Wizard Screen

2. Wireless Setup Page

3. VOIP Setup Page

3a Phone Mapping

4. USB Port Setup

5. Advance Setup Page

6. Handy Tools

7. Setup and Diagnostics

The Answering Machine

Although I am yet to receive a call through BoB2, it does have an inbuilt answering machine that can be activated by touching BoB2. It’s quite loud too by default, and it sent my Golden Retriever Puppy crazy and running towards me when I started playing with it. I am not 100% sure though, but BoB2 makes a buzzing sound while on, but I assume that it is the inbuilt speaker.

The default ring timer is set to 10 seconds by default, but I find that is too short especially when you have to get out of bed, so I set it to 30 seconds. However, make sure you do not set it too long otherwise the settings you set in toolbox may contradict with your settings.

One thing I am not too sure about is configuring VOIP in the iiNet’s ToolBox and on your BoB2 modem. I assume that the settings in the ToolBox take priority before BoB2. So if your internet is down, the ToolBox settings will take action, if BoB2 is connected, BoB2 will take action, as long as the Toolbox settings do not activate first. I have provided my settings in the above two screenshots which should work.

Call History

Another improvement BoB2 has over BoB1 is the call history. BoB1 used to only provide statistics of how many calls you have made, missed or received. With BoB2, it now actually tell you the times and numbers of these calls which is really handy and useful feature.

The Handset

When you look at the handset for the first time, it is quite big and bulky. Not sure what the reason for this is, but for those who cannot see well or who have trouble pressing buttons, it would be a perfect phone for them. Nevertheless, it’s really light and easy to use.

Update: One thing I don’t quite like about the handset is that it is quite difficult to pick the phone up since it fits nicely in the cradle. I had my BoB1 handset in the cradle in another room, and to pick it up, you can actually grab the entire phone. Having BoB2 in somewhat of a corner, the only way to pick it up is if you put your thumb on the earpiece, and use your fingers at the back of the phone to left it up – only then you can grab it. So you only have one way to pick up the phone and that is to pick it up from the top. If you try picking it up from the sides, the phone seems to get stuck or it will end up on the floor.

The phone features a nice big clock, or you can have it display picture. As you can also tell, the BoB2 is very reflective. One feature on the handset that I noticed is a feature called “Room Monitoring”. I could not find any information about it in the instruction manuals, but it allows you to enter a phone number. Therefore I assume that you can put the phone in a room, activate the feature, and if it detects noise (such as an intruder), it automatically calls you and you can listen to what is happening in the room. I will try to test this feature out soon.

USB Settings

With BoB1, you could connect your 3G USB modem, have a FTP, Web, WebDav, and file server, and this is no different to BoB2. However, the web server was a bit dodgy in BoB1 so I didn’t tend to use it. For a static webpage, it was perfect, but anything more, it wasn’t good. With BoB2, I can see a slight improvement on speed, but I would not host a site using BoB2 as your web server. First of all, if you load http://bob2/websitedirectory it will show the files in that directory, then automatically display the index.html page. The speed of displaying static pages is reasonable, so the only reason why I would see anyone using this is if they made a page that links to all their files to download.

The File Server in BoB2 is something that I might consider using now, which I didn’t in BoB1. The speed of accessing the files seem much faster than BoB1. Storing files on a pretty slow 32GB flash drive, and accessing it over 100MB Ethernet, I got a 1.5MB/sec average writing, and around 4MB/sec reading. So sharing small files around the home or simply sharing a portable HDD to multiple computers is pretty easy. I did copy over a 700MB video to stream it and it played reasonably well without any jitter.

The FTP server works, but I didn’t get anything faster than my current internet downloads speed. However, it’s a great way to access your files remotely. For example, I may connect my backup HD to BoB2 when I’m away to be able to access my files without having my computer on. Even though I have a dynamic IP address, I use DYNDNS.org so when my IP address changes, I can easily access my router on the web through a subdomain – which I have been doing all the time on BoB1.

Overall…

I think the BoB2 is a pretty good modem & all in one package, and better than the BoB1. I never got the BoB lite, so I can’t compare it to that, but I am pretty happy with the BoB2. If I didn’t win a BoB2, I probably would not buy one because I don’t see the justification of upgrading. However my BoB1 will still go to good use in another home.

When I first plugged it in, I did notice that the speed of downloading files was almost cut in half, but after trying a number of services, I did reach a my best download speed record ever of 2.1MB/s. With the BoB1, I never reached 2.0MB/s and my Sync speed was never over 20000kbps as it is with BoB2 – so I’d say the download performance is much faster.

Playing around in the UI, it was also much quicker and more responsive than BoB1. I used to run into troubles with BoB1 while adjusting my Wireless settings. The wireless would just drop out and never return until I power-cycled BoB1. But I don’t think I will have that problem with BoB2.

One thing I do like is that BoB2 supports two VOIP accounts from two different providers, where as BoB1 would support two, but only from the same provider. So I am thinking of getting a DID from MyNetFone for $5 per year and use it as a secondary line (in case someone rings while someone is on the phone).

One other slight bug I noticed, when I plugged my BoB1 back in, I picked up the landline phone that was still connected to BoB2 and it still had a dial tone, even though it wasn’t connected to the internet. If this happened on BoB1, you would get a message saying it’s going through a PSTN line. So I am not sure if this is a slight bug.

Never the less, I am quite happy of BoB2. If you want to ask my any specific question (if you are looking at getting one) or for any other reason, please do so in the comments below and I will try my best to answer them in detail.

Update: iiNet just sent an email out saying you can also receive a free 3 month trial Fetch TV. Don’t want it after the three month free trial, simply put it back in the box and send it back. More information about the Fetch TV 3 month trial can be found here.

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Comments

Hi Jack, I have also stopped using the answering machine feature on BOB2 due to the raspy sound of the voice. Couldn’t understand my messages – so this new “feature” was a complete flop for me. I’m back to using the answering machine on my Doro DECT phone.

I have also had to discontinue use of my previous BOB1 phone, as it created problems with my other DECT phones.

Reasonably happy with BOB2 but not all it was made out to be.

I really enjoy reading the suggestions you give and the comments received by you.

PS Meant to say that they shouldn’t be marketing it to Mac users if that’s the case! Anytime I’ve asked about it’s use with Mac they’ve said it’s designed to work with both…. so like I said, my trust in iiNet – after 16 years as a customer and champion of their services – gone!

Hi, I see above that you have configured your bob to work with another voip provider.

I used to have the old belkinf f1p… 4 port voip router connected to ENgin and that worked fine, calls ok and no dropouts.

I now have a Boblite and I have it connected to Engin, the call quality is very good but the calls dropout at 15min (which ties in with the 900 sec re-reg interval). At first I thought it was the firewall preventing the re-reg call coming through but I disabled the firewall and it makes no difference. Talking to both ENgine and IInet has not fixed the issue.

The domain, sip and proxy are all byo.engin.com.au.registrar and proxy ports are both 5062. SIP port is also 5062. IN port forwarding applications , engine has 2 lines, one set to 5070 and the other to 5062.

I really don’t know what I am doing wrong, I am sure it is something as it all worked with the old Belkin. I suspect the router is not recognising the re-registration signal and so Engine drops the call, or it could be that Engin isn’t sending the re-registration msg and so when my router doesn’t reply engin drops the call. I can’t see the logs so I can not determine if the re-registration msg is coming through or not.

Sorry for the long post but any help would be greatly appreciated. I am reasonably tech cavvy but I think I am nearing my limits with this…Thanks,Stephen

Not too sure what’s going on. I’ve used another VOIP provider on the iiNet network, not use the iiNet VOIP on another network. I’ve only got the internet working through BoBLite on another network – I don’t need VOIP, so I haven’t set it up there.

Have you tried toggling “Use SRV option for SIP registration” on and off?

My VOIP re-registration time is set to 1800 which Ived made calls that lasted 4 hours, and I have both VOIP ports going through ports 5060. Since I have two VOIP accounts connected to BOB2, I can call the other number and can use the two different DECT phones to receive and make the call, all going through BOB2.

I’m not too sure what’s going on with your accounts. Does this happen with both iiNet VOIP and Engin VOIP, or only the one provider?

First you have to register your handset with BoB2. There is a setting on the handset to register it, and there is also a button on the back of BoB2 to register handsets. Doing both at the same time, you should be able to register them. Or, you can login BoB2 admin panel at http://10.1.1.1, go into configure voip and you will find an option to register handsets there.

The yellow cable plugs into your computer, alternativly, you can use WiFi to connect.

You can’t find missed calls on the BoB2 handset, which is a bit of a pain, I know. But if you login to BoB2, you can view missed calls in the VOIP section, as well as dialed and answered numbers and call durations. For dialed numbers, iiNet toolbox will give you better information.

I am just wanting to clarify – as you have been extremely helpful so far – can you use other handsets other than the iinet provided handsets with the BOB2 system.If you hook them up you have to register them just the same as the first handset that came with the orginal handset?

You should be able to register any DECT handset to BoB2. I am using the BoB1 handset, the BoB2 Handset, and another DECT Handset from an old Fax phone from Sharp that was purchased probably about 8 years ago.

However, there was a comment left somewhere on my site, that some DECT handsets won’t work because of interferences of signals. But there is no way of knowing unless by trying it first.

Registering non BoB handsets are the same as registering BOB handsets. The only differences is that you go to the correct menu option on the phone. But the process is all the same.

Hi We are thinking of getting a Bob2 have not been with iinet before and no experience with Bob at all.I have heard that the wireless on Bob2 is not that good due to an small internal ariel. Can you let me know if you have had any problems with the wireless connection at all please?CheersGreencheese

At the current moment, I have not done a thorough test of the wireless in BoB2. Later this week, or early next week, I will be posting up a review comparing the wireless signal strength for all the BoB’s – BoB1, BoB Lite, and BoB2 and also iiNet’s Wireless Bridges.

But with BoB1, and BoB2, I have not yet noticed a lack of coverage around my house – but I will do a thorough test soon.

Since you have supplied your email address, I will send you an email when I post the review up.

My personal experience with iiNet has been overall pretty great. Although getting connected was a bit of a hassle because iiNet, Optus and Telstra couldn’t find my house, which prolonged the connection, but they did give me a free month which was nice of them, and my service is $10 cheaper, with almost 4 times the amount of bandwidth since the past two years they’ve have changed there plans around – so in that regard, they’re pretty good. Support on Twitter, and FB is excellent as well – you actually know the name of the person who you are talking too, unlike other ISP’s on social media.

The connection isn’t as reliable as I had with Bigpond in another location, but a few timeouts, or 5 min outages aren’t really that much of a biggie (like once a month which I think is acceptable, as they do give you notification in advance)

I can’t remember the number off the top of my head unfortunately, but if if you have more than 10 on BoB2, you might want to delete some.

Also, if you using VOIP, make sure your Voicemail settings in Toolbox doesn’t conflict with the voicemail settings on BOB2.

My advice is to use one or the other. Using Voicemail on the iiNet toolbox, you can have voicemails emailed to you and you can listen on your computer or phone, or you can use the BoB2 to listen to them. But on BoB2, you can’t really keep a copy, and sometimes you can’t hear what the other person says.

If you want to use BOB2, have a 45 ring length set in Toolbox, and have your ring length, on BOB2, 30 seconds. If the values are the same, I think Toolbox overrides.

can you please let me know what are the optimal settings for the BoB2 to allow online gaming. (specifically MineCraft)also what do I need to change on the modem to allow for my son to create a server that others outside of the LAN to connect to? Do I need to activate port forwarding and if so what are the settings changes that need to be made.Please help, I have a tech savvy son with a curly question that I cant seem to solve.

I’m not really too sure of what the “best setting” is. You could set QOS (Quality of Service) for the port, but then that may crash your VOIP line.

What I would recommend is to log into the iiNet Toolbox, and in the broadband setting somewhere, you can change your speed. During my experience, having it on the second best worked a lot better for web browsing, then the fullist – however, I haven’t tested it for games – so you may want to play around with that.

If you want to set up a server, you need to create a free or paid http://dyn.com/dns/ account and configure the username and password in BoB2 – because your IP address will change, and this will ensure you will always be able to access your router remotely. Then you need to setup port forwarding for the ports you want, and point them to the server on your LAN. Port 80 for HTTPS, 443 HTTPS. You can check with http://canyouseeme.org/ if it’s all working OK.

I am using a bob2 as well and really dont like that I cant personal a message on the answering machine. Can you set up a standard answering machine to work with the Bob2? If so, can it be any kind of machine or only certain types?

Yes, just purchase another phone with an inbuilt answering machine, and plug it into the the FXS port on the back of BoB2 and turn off the BoB2 answering machine. Then the external phone will answer the call on the answering machine after xx seconds.

Also, if you are using iiNet with VOIP, and VOIP is your main number, log onto Toolbox, and have voice mails emailed to you, that way you get to save a copy on your computer and also play them back on your computer’s speaker, which will be much clearer.

You will need to turn the answering machine on BoB2 Off, so it will keep ringing. Then set a time like “answer in 25 seconds” on your new answering machine, so it will pick up the call and record the message.

Jack, Know anything about whether adding a hard drive into the USB port on the BoB2 should allow it to function over wifi with a Mac to act as a “time Machine”? I expected just to plug it in and then use Airport Utility to select it. Clearly this was naive as it’s not working. The drive works fine if I plug it directly into the mac via USB and also I can find the drive using finder and even log in as the registered user by entering my BoB2 Username and password (although I can’t see any files or backups). Got any ideas?

Hello,
I don’t think it will work. You would need an externally powered Hard Drive as BoB2 may not be able to supply enough power through the USB port.

I have never used TimeMachine, but BoB2 will only allow you to create FTP Accounts (and I think WebDev – haven’t used BoB2 in a while, now using Budii). So I don’t think time machine can backup via FTP – and if it can, it will be incredibly slow.

Best to look at getting a NAS and plugging it in via a LAN cable, and using that for Time Machine.

Hi Jack, Thanks for answering. I do have an externally powered hard drive so “check”. You are right that BoB2 says the USB port is for either a 3g plug-in, an FTP or a Webdev. I don’t think time machine can back up via FTP either – but not cos I know what FTP is – only cos (in Apple language) Airport Utility says there are no configured Time Capsules.

Well the NetGear WNDR3700 has ReadyShare, which is compatible with Time Machine http://www.netgear.com.au/readyshare, so it may work. You might as well ditch BoB2 all together than (unless you need the VOIP/Phone features)